It's a pity that these people who are trying to undermine Andy's achievement don't take a lead from Nole himself who was very generous in his response to it. I'm not a great Nole fan but he's a good loser and he was the first to say Andy deserved to win.I completely agree with you. I don't particularly like ND or Nadal, but I have been very impressed with their responses to his victories. I really liked the way ND bothered to walk round the net to go and give Mr M a hug at the end. I couldn't see Fed doing that. It puts footballers infantile behaviour to shame.

As for Ferrer being a real threat on a hard court. I just can't get my head around it. He might be a good player, but he has never reached even one GS final. His 3 Master's finals have all been lost in straight sets. Taking the set off ND was in the same category as Mr M losing that set to Cilic. It happened, but the outcome of both matches was never really in doubt. Mr M has improved so much in the way he tackles these big matches this year. Lendl has given him the last bit of the jigsaw to enable him to take that final step. Apart from the technical aspects it might be as simple as the fact when he looks up at his box, during a match there is that calm, stone like figure to reassure him. I also don't think that anyone should underestimate just how much that Olympic final meant to him. He managed something Fed and ND haven't. That must be very, very special. I also get the feeling that whilst the GS was a very important achievement for him career wise, probably in terms of sheer joy, the Gold Medal actually means more to him.

tj I absolutely agree that Andy won't let it all go to his head and get wrapped up in the being a star thing. It's clear that the very idea rather frightens him and that what he wants most is for his life to change as little as possible. But I also agree that he might find the lesser tournaments don't give him the same adrenalin rush as winning the big ones and that might need some adjusting to - indeed there were signs of it already though he has said he needs to achieve greater consistency to move further up the rankings so perhaps he's aware of it too.And agree with you Masaka about Ferrer. He will run his opponent ragged but I just can't see him winning USO or any other GS for that matter.

I think we have to accept that Andy might have a bit of a dip as he adjusts to his new status etc but if he does we should be patient as I'm sure it won't last and my main hope is that he comes good at 02 and wins end of year championship to make it a hat trick of big wins.

This appeared on the BBC website on 11 Sept -

Andy Murray's former coach Miles Maclagan predicts "lull"

Andy Murray's former coach Miles Maclagan believes that the British number one will experience a slump in results as opposed to a surge of victories after picking up the US Open trophy ..... "[Murray is] in uncharted territory and he could go one of two ways. Either he'll absolutely fly for a while and win everything in sight but it wouldn't surprise me to see a bit of a lull.

"You reach a lifetime goal, something you've strived for your whole life, and you've now got it and you have to take a bit of time to think 'I've got to set some new goals, readjust myself and build up some determination for that.'"

I think he has a good point, but Andy already has another goal in sight - that of becoming No.1 - and he knows that if he is to achieve this then he'll have to work hard to do so, and that means winning as many tournaments as possible in order to pick up as many ranking points as he can, not to mention winning another Slam or two. Also the Andy Murray of today isn't the same one Maclagan coached. His whole mental attitude has changed for the better. And this time round, Andy has had time to come to terms with this achievement, something which was denied him after the Olympics.

I think the danger, if I can call it that, at least in the immediate future, will be if Andy doesn't get the same buzz out of the regular tournaments as he has clearly got from the Olympics and the USO. Andy seems to thrive on big crowds, big atmospheres etc. Tokyo, for example, might not feel quite as much of a thrill as Flushing Meadows lol.

Of course, backing up what he did at the Olympics with winning the USO could do wonders for Andy's confidence, and he could come out in Tokyo raring to go again. If he does that I wouldn't envy anyone trying to take him on.

And you've made a good point too, TJ - Tokyo is going to be a bit of a comedown, but I think Shangai will ginger him up. It's always a great tournament, and with SmugFed having finally decided to stop throwing his toys out of the pram and play in it, that should give him added incentive.

I think I agree with you Aileen and the fact he's gone out early to Tokyo suggests he's taking it seriously. But that said I do think we have to be prepared for a possible letdown and be kind and patient should it come.

I just ignore the people discounting Andy's win (the same people strangely enough who said that he'd never win a slam ). They're just disappointed because their prediction was wrong. I don't understand the argument of Andy being so lucky that it was windy - it affects both players, Andy just happened to adjust to it better than both Berdych and Djokovic. Djokovic in particular should have adjusted better, especially after his struggles against Ferrer in the first set. But Andy's record against Djokovic on fast hardcourts speaks for itself - I believe he'd have won that match anyway, even under perfect weather conditions.

It's difficult to know exactly how Andy will react in the short term to having won a slam - sometimes slam champions go on a roll, others go into a slump. But what I do know is that as a fan I'll feel much more relaxed during the slams now that Andy's won one. And hopefully Andy will too. He's definitely talented enough to win multiple slams, and I think he will do it.

I'm with you Katie.No reason to suspect Andy will not be motivated. He's set his sights on being no. 1 and that meant being consistent all year, he stated.

I think I agree with you Aileen and the fact he's gone out early to Tokyo suggests he's taking it seriously. But that said I do think we have to be prepared for a possible letdown and be kind and patient should it come.

Thanks for interesting the article. If you did post it earlier, I didn't see it. I understand there was a match at Hampden Park shortly after Andy's USO win, and that the crowd were chanting "There's only one Andy Murray!" That, from footie fans, most of whom wouldn't know one end of a racquet from the other, was amazing and shows just how widely celebrated his win was. Mind you, when was the last time Scotland won the Footie World Cup??!!

Whichever way Andy goes now, win or lose, I'll be right there with him.

I think as far as Miles Maclagan is concerned it is a bit of 'sour grapes'. Look at his behavior at Wimby when Andy beat Marco.

I didn't realise that Fed is playing Shanghai. It seems a little bit silly for someone who is 'tired and wounded' to go all the way to Asia for one tournament only to have to return to Europe and play three tournaments with no breaks in between. It would make a mockery of why he backed off in the first place.

I see some people are still suggesting that Nadal is on a 'silent ban'. This is so unfair as he has a history of bad knees. Taking painklillers before matches may be why we saw no evidence of the problem at Wimby.

I cannot for one minute imagine that having said he wants to reach No. 1 that Andy will not take the smaller tournies seriously. He has now reached his goal and more for this year so will now put everything into defending his titles in Asia and trying to win the European ones including WTF. Fingers crossed he will not be injured. He is certainly very fit if not the fittest on tour.

To me, there are no asterisked Slam titles, and there’s no need to mention any supposedly mitigating circumstances; 128 of the world’s best players set out to win seven matches, and only one of them does—that’s an accomplishment worth praising. And there was certainly no shame in the fact that Murray only had to beat one member of the Top 3 along the way. That's how it usually works for all of the top guys.

In Nadal’s 11 major-title runs, he's had to beat both Djokovic and Federer three times, all at the French Open, in 2006, '07, and '08. In Djokovic’s five Slam-winning runs, he's had to beat Federer and Nadal once, at the 2011 U.S. Open (Del Potro did the same thing, in reverse order, at the Open in 2009). Federer has never won a major in which he faced both Nadal and Djokovic.

I've often felt that the pressure that is dumped on Andy every year at Wimbledon is really unhelpful. However, I do think there is a difference now, which might help. In the past, including this year, Andy has gone in to Wimbledon wanting to do well, and he has. He has also only had the memory of those major final losses when he has gone deep in to the tournament. Next year, if Andy gets to the semi's, or hopefully the final, he will surely know he can do it, because he has done it before. I hope that will help him through those pressure moments.

I think you're right on this, teejay - but there's also something else. When Andy steps into SW19 to play again next year, he's going to be riding a tidal wave of love that he will never have experienced in a Wimbledon championship before. Yes, there will be pressure on him to win that all important golden trophy for the first time, but for the first year he should be all but free of the mean-spirited snipes and moans and qualified acceptance of him that has been the norm with some folks in the past.

When he comes back to play Wimbledon 2013, he'll be a Grand Slam winner (at least once) and an Olympic gold medallist. He's already experienced the public opening up to him after he cried losing this year, and has seen the jubilation from us all at his wins since then - he's going to be coming into the next year's tournament properly popular for perhaps the first time, and I tell you what, even in the snootiest matchups later on in the tourney I can't see Roger Federer ever getting anywhere near as much support as Andy in Wimbledon, ever again.

I do hope you're right Kavanaugh but from various postings it sounds like some of the sniping continues. There are some people who will never accept Andy however much he achieves - their loss I say. But I agree that they are now a minority whereas previously it felt like they spoke for England.

I think you're right on this, teejay - but there's also something else. When Andy steps into SW19 to play again next year, he's going to be riding a tidal wave of love that he will never have experienced in a Wimbledon championship before. Yes, there will be pressure on him to win that all important golden trophy for the first time, but for the first year he should be all but free of the mean-spirited snipes and moans and qualified acceptance of him that has been the norm with some folks in the past.

When he comes back to play Wimbledon 2013, he'll be a Grand Slam winner (at least once) and an Olympic gold medallist. He's already experienced the public opening up to him after he cried losing this year, and has seen the jubilation from us all at his wins since then - he's going to be coming into the next year's tournament properly popular for perhaps the first time, and I tell you what, even in the snootiest matchups later on in the tourney I can't see Roger Federer ever getting anywhere near as much support as Andy in Wimbledon, ever again.

Great post Kavanaugh. I think you have a point, a very good point.

It's funny, it does rather feel like Andy has 'arrived' for a lot of people, not only in terms of being a Slam winner now, although that is the key thing, but in people's affections. I'm sure his tears after the final was part of that, although it wasn't the first time we, his fans, saw him so moved by support from a crowd, which I still think was the biggest thing that set him off, as well as the disappointment, and the sense I think he had that he'd let people down. However, I also sensed the beginning of a shift in the mood towards him when he won the semi at Wimbledon against Tsonga. I really do think that people could sense how much he wanted it that day, and shared in the joy when he won through. I don't mind admitting that I cried at that, it was wonderful.

It will be interesting to see if he is received differently next year at Wimbledon. I'm sure he will be. At last he will go there as no longer a 'nearly man', but a Grand Slam Champion, at least once, as you say, and the Olympic Gold Medalist. Wimbledon crowds do like the Slam Champions, and him being a Brit as well, it could be an exciting combination. I really do hope so.

The one thing I will be delighted about is that next year in the build up to Wimbledon we won't have to endure what always seems like an endless stream of pundits forming a queue to discuss Andy's ability to win slams. That is one aspect of things I won't miss. I remember this year giving Martina Navratilova a piece of my mind when she questioned Andy's ability to do it. I really must try to remember that yelling at the PC monitor like a harpy never works lol. I felt a bit smug though, when Andy proved her (and a few others) wrong.

I don't want to tempt fate, but I'd love another Murray/Federer final at SW19. Just the idea of Andy beating Fed on Centre Court for a second time fills me with glee.

I remember the year Andy first reached USO final Sky put on a special programme about him at Christmas called Andy Murray: the real deal. I still have it on my hard disk. Perhaps we should start a petition for them to make an update at the end of this momentous year.

I remember the year Andy first reached USO final Sky put on a special programme about him at Christmas called Andy Murray: the real deal. I still have it on my hard disk. Perhaps we should start a petition for them to make an update at the end of this momentous year.

I've never seen that. I didn't have Sky then. It would be nice if they did something now. A lot has happened since that first final.

let's get that petition together then teejay as it was a great programme. They showed it on Christmas Day if I remember rightly.

I've just sent them an email tj saying I hope they'll do another one. Perhaps others with Sky could do the same. I sent it to [email protected] and it doesn't seem to have bounced back so I guess the correct email address.

let's get that petition together then teejay as it was a great programme. They showed it on Christmas Day if I remember rightly.

I've just sent them an email tj saying I hope they'll do another one. Perhaps others with Sky could do the same. I sent it to [email protected] and it doesn't seem to have bounced back so I guess the correct email address.

I'll certainly drop them an e-mail too when I get time. Something special should be done. Andy's made tennis history for us Brits, and it would be nice if it was marked in some way.